Development of inertial and novel marker-based techniques and analysis for upper arm rotational velocity measurements in tennis

This paper examines three methods to measure the upper arm rotation, the main contributor to produce a fast first serve in tennis. Accepted videography techniques were compared with a novel inertial gyroscope system and marker-based technique. A network of two inertial sensors on the upper arm and the chest was used to measure upper arm rotation angle and remove body artifacts. A marker-based virtual gyroscope (MBVG) was derived from Vicon marker positions in the standard Plug-in-Gait model using a vector-based method of marker trajectories and a series of geometric transformations. The results indicate that there is a close temporal feature match for all three methods when applied to the tennis serve. This paper shows that gyroscopes as well as the MBVG can be advantageous for tennis serve assessment.     

The Remarkable Roles of the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products (RAGE) and Its Soluble Isoforms in COVID-19: The Importance of RAGE Pathway in the Lung Injuries

The respiratory symptoms of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients is associated with accumulation of pre-inflammatory molecules such as advanced glycation end-products (AGES), calprotectin, high mobility group box family-1 (HMGB1), cytokines, angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), and other molecules in the alveolar space of lungs and plasma. The receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGEs), which is mediated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), plays a critical role in the severity of chronic inflammatory diseases such as diabetes mellitus (DM) and ARDS. The RAGE gene is most expressed in the alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) of the pulmonary system. Several clinical trials are now being conducted to determine the possible association between the levels of soluble isoforms of RAGE (sRAGE and esRAGE) and the severity of the disease in patients with ARDS and acute lung injury (ALI). In the current article, we reviewed the most recent studies on the RAGE/ligands axis and sRAGE/esRAGE levels in acute respiratory illness, with a focus on COVID-19–associated ARDS (CARDS) patients. According to the research conducted so far, sRAGE/esRAGE measurements in patients with CARDS can be used as a powerful chemical indicator among other biomarkers for assessment of early pulmonary involvement. Furthermore, inhibiting RAGE/MAPK and Angiotensin II receptor type 1 (ATR1) in CARDS patients can be a powerful strategy for diminishing cytokine storm and severe respiratory symptoms.     

Contextualizing Nature of Science Instruction in Socioscientific Issues

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two learning contexts for explicit-reflective nature of science (NOS) instruction, socioscientific issues (SSI) driven and content driven, on student NOS conceptions. Four classes of 11th and 12th grade anatomy and physiology students participated. Two classes experienced a curricular sequence organized around SSI (the SSI group), and two classes experienced a content-based sequence (the Content group). An open-ended NOS questionnaire was administered to both groups at the beginning and end of the school year and analyzed to generate student profiles. Quantitative analyses were performed to compare pre-instruction NOS conceptions between groups as well as pre to post changes within groups and between groups. Both SSI and Content groups showed significant gains in most NOS themes, but between-group gains were not significantly different. Qualitative analysis of post-instruction responses, however, revealed that students in the SSI group tended to use examples to describe their views of the social/cultural NOS. The findings support SSI contexts as effective for promoting gains in students’ NOS understanding and suggest that these contexts facilitate nuanced conceptions that should be further explored.     

Study of the Concentration of Trace Elements Fe,Zn, Cu,Se and Their Correlation in Maternal Serum,Cord Serum and Colostrums

A study of iron, zinc, copper and selenium concentration levels was carried out in three compartments namely, maternal serum (MS), colostrums and cord blood serum (CS) of healthy Indian mothers (n = 42) who delivered healthy normal neonates without any congenital anomalies at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre hospital, Mumbai. Fe, Zn, Cu in maternal serum, cord blood and colostrums were estimated by flame atomic absorption spectrometry while Se was determined by graphite furnace absorption spectrometry. It was seen that there was a significant difference in the level of trace elements in the three compartments. The average levels of Fe in the three compartments were 1,132 ± 519, 2,312 ± 789 and 1,183 ± 602 μg/L while Zn was 514 ± 149, 819 ± 224 and 7,148 ± 2,316 μg/L respectively. Mean Cu values were 1,614 ± 295, 301 ± 77 and 392 ± 174 μg/L respectively while Se values were 70 ± 15, 36 ± 10 and 23 ± 8 μg/L respectively. The results indicated a positive correlation of Fe and Zn concentrations in MS versus CS which were (r = 0.386), (r = 0.572) respectively and Fe levels in MS and colostrums (r = 0.235). A few inter element correlations were found within compartments. Zn and Se showed a negative correlation in both MS (r = −0.489) and colostrums (r = −0.258) while a positive inter correlation of Fe and Zn was seen in MS (r = 0.44) and in CS (r = 0.54). This study gave us an overview of the serum and colostrum values of mother and neonates in Indian population, data of which are scarce.     

Education for an Aging Planet

As low income societies experience rapid aging of their populations, they face major challenges in developing educational policies to prepare their workforce for the future. We review modest efforts undertaken to assist colleagues in three societies: Mexico, China, and Jamaica. Graduate education in gerontology has an important opportunity to expand research, training, and service-learning programs in global aging.     

Action control,L2 motivational self system,and motivated learning behavior in a foreign language learning context

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Theoretical developments in second or foreign language motivation research have led to a better understanding of the convoluted nature of motivation in...     

Using learning analytics to explore self-regulated learning in flipped blended learning music teacher education

Blended learning (BL) is a popular e-Learning model in higher education that has the potential to take advantage of learning analytics (LA) to support student learning. This study utilized LA to investigate fourth-year undergraduates' (n = 157) use of self-regulated learning (SRL) within the online components of a previously unexamined BL discipline, Music Teacher Education. SRL behaviors were captured unobtrusively in real time through students' interaction with course materials in Moodle. Categorized by function: (1) activating—online access location, day-of-the-week, time-of-day; (2) sustaining—online frequency; and (3) structuring—online regularity and exam review patterns, all six SRL behaviors were revealed to have weak to moderate significant relationships with academic achievement. Results indicated access day-of-the-week and access frequency as the strongest predictors for student success. Findings regarding access regularity when viewed through results from previous SRL-LA research may suggest the importance of this SRL behavior for successful students within several BL discipline areas. In addition, the role of learning design (eg, flipped instruction) in potentially scaffolding students' choices toward specific SRL behaviors, was revealed as an important context for future researchers' consideration.     

System-on-a-chip (SoC)-based hardware acceleration for foreground and background identification

The rapid growth of embedded vision applications and accessibility in recent years has instigated a philosophical shift in algorithm and implementation design for artificial intelligence. With the popularization of high-definition video, the amount of data available to be processed has also increased substantially, posing massive computational and communication demands. Hardware acceleration through specialization has received renewed interest in recent years; such acceleration has generally been implemented using two chips, with the image signal processing (ISP) part being performed by a DSP, a GPU or an FPGA and the video content analytics (VCA) part being executed by a processor. GPUs consume a substantial amount of power; thus, it is challenging to deploy them in embedded environments. However, the new generation of SoC-FPGAs that are fabricated with both the microprocessor and FPGA on a single chip consumes less power and can be built into small systems, thereby offering an attractive platform for embedded applications. This study presents the hardware acceleration of a real-time adaptive background and foreground identification algorithm in a SoC, including the capture, processing and display stages. The algorithm can be performed in either 2D or 3D space. The proposed platform uses photometric invariant color, depth data and local binary patterns (LBPs) to distinguish background from foreground. The system uses minimal cell resources, an elastically pipelined architecture is used to absorb variations in processing time, and each pipeline stage is optimized to use the available FPGA primitives. Additionally, the communication-centric architecture used in this work simplifies the implementation of embedded vision algorithms.